Month: April 2013

May is coming soon, like in Tomorrow! Also tomorrow is our May show at The Radon Lounge. And boy oh boy what a show it will be! Lucius, Tall Tall Trees, and Derrick Streibig!

We wanted to take a moment to talk about a couple of the acts that will be on the show today, those being Tall Tall Trees and Derrick Streibig

Tall Tall Trees is Mike Savino and his band from New York, New York. However when they play at the Radon Lounge, it will just be Mike and his heavily modified electric banjo. While listening to the recordings from this band we get the feeling they can do wide variety of things with their clever arrangements centered around the banjo. Sometimes we picture Mike Savino as a thinner Zach Galifianakis with hilarious subtlety with seemingly normal but outrageous scenarios in songs like “The Girl from the Chinese Food Restaurant” and “Crazy Driver”.

But those songs are more of the hidden gems, Tall Tall Trees really shines when it comes to songs like “Highwire”. With Highwire, they show they can really hold their own with anything going on in indie music of the current day. Right as soon as you have them pegged, they throw a curve ball with a slight hoedown, taking full advantage of the banjo, in “Waiting on the Day”. Mike Savino by himself would put on a memorable show at the Radon Lounge, but grouped with the other stellar artists of the evening, we can’t think of a better show happening in Springfield this spring.

You can find Tall Tall Trees’ music everywhere including Spotify and Bandcamp. Also you should be able to pick up some merch from them at the show!

Our opener of the evening will be local favorite Derrick Streibig. Derrick is still fairly recent to the Springfield scene, since moving here from St Louis in the last few years.

Having spent a lot of time in various St Louis scenes, Derrick wows Springfield crowds quickly. More than once we have seen him impress folks who thought they were coming out to see just another green musician picking up an acoustic guitar. As soon as you hear his voice, it’s obvious he has been doing this for a long time. Derrick’s style is best described to be trance-like particularly with his go to single “Always Peace”. Sometimes when listening to music, it’s best to picture a particular setting, like Bon Iver playing in a lonely cabin during winter time. Derrick is best visualized at the end of a hot summer day on the ocean beach, the setting sun throwing silhouettes of the people around you. We understand that this is hard to visualize for mid-westerners, fortunately Derrick will help us with this.

Derrick’s solo album, as well as his band We Are Warm, both have music available on bandcamp! We Are Warm is recording new material and will be one of our top acts at The Horse Show this summer!

Be sure to check out both Derrick Streibig and Tall Tall Trees at our May 1st show with Lucius! Check out the facebook event for more details!

We’ve been talking about the Horse Show for some time now. Now we’re ready to take it to the next level!

The date is June 15th. The lineup is done, the food has been arranged, some fun secrets are being discussed, the flier is done, and now we have a facebook event page!

We’ve got some really great bands to play the event, now we just need to make sure we can pay them! This is where we need you. Although the event is free, we still need donations to make it all work. We wanted to do this in a Kickstarter-esque way where people who feel strongly about this event and strongly about bringing music into this area will put their money down, whatever they can afford to give. We only need to raise about $1000 more to cover the event’s needs, which is pretty much just paying the musicians. This is pretty cheap considering the vast talent playing this show. So if you want to know how you can participate, be sure to check out the paypal buttons on this website, and if you’re still not sure, then just send us an email and we can guide you through. All donations are being held by Refuge Ranch until the time of the event. Refuge Ranch is a 501c3 non profit organization, just make sure if you write a check directly to the ranch that you include Horse Show in the memo field.

We’ll also have our donation box out during the next show on May 1st if you don’t want to do the paypal thing, or you can mail it to the ranch. Of course if the donations don’t come in we’ll be forced to pay for everything out of pocket, where you can be assured there will not be another Horse Show. We have a feeling and a hope it won’t have to come to that.

We still have more work to do between now and June 15th. We’re going to be making some sampler CDs with songs from the musicians of the show. We’re also going to work on t-shirts and just spreading the word. If you have an idea on how to promote the show, be sure to get a hold of us. We strongly believe this show can become a beloved annual summer event, however that can only happen if people get behind it. So go forth and spread the word!!!

So back in January when we were putting this show together, all we were set on was landing a date with this magnificent band we’re about to talk about, we didn’t realize it was also going to be Record store day and another particular day. We encourage you to celebrate Record Store Day. If you want to celebrate that other day, don’t do it at the Radon.

So what magnificent band are we talking about, why Analecta of course!

an·a·lec·ta (n-lkt)
pl.n. selections from or parts of a literary work or group of works. often used as a title.

n.
a three piece post-rock experimental band from south bend, indiana

Sometime last year a Radon Lounge fan clued us into what Analecta was doing over at the Cornerstone Music Fest. Analecta has been a favorite over at Cornerstone the last few years as well as a bastion of the South Bend music scene and is reaching out. Analecta is a 3 piece post-rock experimental post rock band, really reminds us of Explosions in the Sky and just generally being awesome. These guys are actually going to make a lot of changes in the coming weeks, with both lineup and setlists, this will be one of the first shows with their new sound, so you better freak out and get excited!

Check out their bandcamp page and listen to their old tunes (frame of reference), and like them on facebook, and come out on April 20th with your face melting face!

Analecta also just collaborated with Trouper (played our last show!), and Keyoung, you can also check that out on their bandcamp!

This week we’ve been talking about the bands who will be playing the Radon Lounge this Saturday. Today is gonna be all about Caterpillar Club.

Caterpillar Club is a local 3 piece, composed of veteran Springfield players, including Kevin Bradford and Cory VanMeter who oversee a lot of what goes on at the Black Sheep Cafe. Like most bands that play at the Radon Lounge, Caterpillar Club is hard to describe, as they blend a lot of influences from sludge, shoegaze, and post rock. Keeping with usual post rock sensibilities, their songs are instrumental only, but once you let it immerse you, you’ll understand that lyrics are not always necessary. Caterpillar Club describes their music as “a weird space station full of an ocean”. They have been a band for about a year now, although the members are in other bands as well, and have been for many years, this is more about pursuing a passion and seeing where it takes them. This is their second performance here at the Radon, as last year they opened for Listener. They were well liked last time, and we feel they’ll be even better now. They have some recordings out on their bandcamp page, and they are doing a CASSETTE TAPE Release during this show! If you don’t know what cassette tapes are, then you need to be more cool.

Be sure to check out their bandcamp to listen to their tracks! Be very sure to like them on facebook! Be without a doubt, brutally honestly sure to come check them out this Saturday at the Radon Lounge!

Used to when we thought of anxiety, we thought about a mental disorder, or just a brief state of being. Now we think of Lovecow

Will Cody get through the song without freezing up? Is Kristin running off stage? Is Ryan going to finally get through that melodica solo? Will Mitch and Will stay in rhythm? The anxiety just rolls off the stage in waves. Just kidding, these guys can really play. Lovecow is Springfield’s premier folk punk band. If you’ve never heard them before, you’ll probably be amazed at their clever arrangements and lyrics. They’ll especially surprise you with what they can do with no amplification. They play a wide range of instruments including stand-up bass, melodica, guitar, and banjolele. Rumor is they’re adding instruments to their new songs, so if you’ve seen them before, you’ll be in for a treat on April 20th. Lovecow has also just released their first EP, which all physical copies have hand painted covers.

We have a big show coming up this Saturday, lots of cool stuff will be happening, lots of face melting.

We want to talk about each band this week as we wanted to make sure you knew what you are getting yourself into.

Today, we’re going to focus on The Traditional, from Buffalo, NY.

We’ll admit that we don’t know a lot about this band. They are on tour with Analecta and they are definitely high energy, reminds us of Anberlin or if you’ve been following the local scene: Up In Arms, Kickstart, or With You In Mind. They describe their sound as “dark, but authentic and heartfelt brand of emo infused indie rock”. We would say they definitely have their own sound, and you should especially check out their single “You Can’t Rebuild Forever” on spotify, bandcamp, amazon, and itunes. They are certainly coming a long way to be here and will be the first band from the state of New York to appear at the Radon Lounge, although looking at the next show, this seems to be the hip new thing. Be sure to check out their facebook page, and their bandcamp, and as we mentioned, you can find their music just about everywhere.

We hope you can come see them this Saturday April 20th, right here at the Radon Lounge! Check out the facebook event for more info!

Tomorrow is a show we’ve been excited about for a while. The Soil & The Sun, Kellen & Me, and Trouper. All three could headline any of our shows, but to have them all in one night? No moderation in this house.

The Soil & The Sun has been making waves recently by getting nominated by NPR as one of 100 artists to discover this year at SXSW. Both Soil & the Sun and Kellen & Me played shows at SXSW this year and have been on tour since. Soil & the Sun, a beautiful swirling mass of bodies and sound from Grand Rapids, MI. They could be classified as New Mexican Space Music/Experiential Spiritual Folk-Rock, or people can compare them to Gungor or The Arcade Fire all day, but once you see them you’ll be too speechless to discuss. http://thesoilandthesun.com/

KELLEN & ME is transversing new ground with his unique sound that emanates from this one-man ensemble. Kellen plays an electro-indie-folk-rock that evokes a sense of both future and past. His debut album is a blend of old style 1960’s Lo-Fi rock, with High-Fi, philharmonic results.http://kellenandme.bandcamp.com/

TROUPER Trouper began in early 2013. The band was formed by members Aaron James & Jocelyn Nicolas, who received the peak of their artistic recognition from their former band ‘The La De Les.’ (2011-present) Dedicated to the belief of the unique power of music & its role in international development & human relationships, they have spent extensive time and research in Cambodia & Thailand working on collaborations and enabling young artists and musicians.http://troupe-music.com/